Snow, Flooding Hits West

Martin Griffith
Associated Press Writer

Still more snow piled up Sunday in the Sierra Nevada, where at least 5 feet had fallen from a storm that contributed to flooding in Fernley, killed at least three people and blacked out thousands of customers.

Forecasters predicted more rain and snow Sunday, but without the severity of the weather that has pounded the three-state region for three days.

Winter storm warnings remained in effect for some mountainous areas and the main highway through the Sierra Nevada was closed during the night. Residents were warned of possible mudslides in parts of rain-soaked Southern California where slopes had been denuded by the fall’s wildfires.

One hiker was missing in snow-covered mountains in Southern California, and four snowmobilers were missing in heavy snow in the mountains of southern Colorado.

A ruptured levee on a rain-swollen canal spilled a frigid "wall of water" into the desert town of Fernley on Saturday, flooding hundreds of homes and forcing the rescue of dozens of people by helicopter and boat.

No injuries were reported in the town about 30 miles east of Reno, after a section of the Truckee Canal levee up to 150 feet long broke soon after 4 a.m. Saturday.

As many as 3,500 people were temporarily stranded and an estimated 1,500 were displaced from their homes, Lyon County Fire Chief Scott Huntley said Saturday night. About 25 people remained at a shelter set up at a high school after a peak of about 150 earlier in the day.

Huntley, one of the first on the scene, described the flood as a "wall of water about 2 feet high going down Farm District Road."

Eric Cornett fled from his home with his wife and three children.

"We saw water coming in the back door and tried to grab as much stuff as possible to save it. The water was rising very quickly and it was scary," he said.

Two helicopters aided boat crews in rescuing at least 18 people from driveways and roofs.

The cause of the levee rupture wasn’t clear, but one canal official suggested rodents burrowing holes in the earthen bank might have contributed to it.

Gov. Jim Gibbons declared the county an emergency area and the Federal Emergency Management Agency planned to survey the damage Monday.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared emergencies in three counties hit hard by the storms, and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski declared a state of emergency for one county that had severe wind damage.

In the mountains east of Los Angeles, authorities searched Sunday for a 62-year-old man who went hiking Friday just before the storm began, San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Arden Wiltshire said. The man used his cell phone Friday to report he had lost his sense of direction in fog, but searchers last had cell phone contact with him early Saturday.

The area was hit with snow later that day, but the man was believed to be dressed warmly, knows the area well and has survivalist training from serving in the military, Wiltshire said.

Heavy snow prevented rescuers from resuming a search Sunday for four snowmobilers missing since Friday near Colorado’s Cumbres Pass, elevation 10,222 feet, near the New Mexico state line. The road to the pass was blocked by several feet of snow and as much as 2 feet more was forecast by the end of the day.

"They’re all up there waiting for the weather to clear so they can begin searching," Conejos County, Colo., sheriff’s spokeswoman Maria Martinez said Sunday. According to weather service forecasts, she said, they might be waiting until Monday or later.

At least 5 feet of snow had fallen on ski areas in the rugged Sierra Nevada by early Sunday, with 9 feet possible at some higher elevations, the National Weather Service said. As much as 3 feet more could hit the area by Tuesday evening, the weather service said.

Blizzard conditions in the mountains during the night prompted authorities to again close nearly 100 miles of Interstate 80 from about 30 miles east of Sacramento to just over the Nevada state line, but the California Department of Transportation’s Web site later said it was open to vehicles with chains or with a combination of 4-wheel-drive and snow tires.

More than 220,000 homes and businesses in Northern California were still without power Sunday, and Pacific Gas and Electric said the storm had downed nearly 500 miles of power lines and more than 500 utility poles throughout the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay area. Repair crews in the snow-covered Sierra foothills will have to use snowshoes, all-terrain vehicles and helicopters, utility officials said.

Fewer than 5,000 customers were still blacked out in the Los Angeles area. The storm also had cause blackouts in parts of Oregon and Washington.

One woman died when her pickup truck was swept into a flood channel east of Los Angeles, police said. Rescuers found her boyfriend clinging to a tree.

A falling tree killed a woman in Oregon, and a falling branch killed a transportation worker in Northern California.

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